- Course overview
- Search within this course
- Why do we need a pathway database?
- What is Reactome?
- When to use Reactome
- Who is Reactome for?
- Navigating Reactome
- Understanding the Pathway Browser
- Analysing data
- Programmatic access
- Contributing to Reactome
- Summary
- Try it yourself!
- Your feedback
- Get help and support on Reactome
Who is Reactome for?
For life scientists
High-throughput technologies allow researchers to identify gene regulation markers and determine gene expression, protein and metabolite levels for many thousands of molecules in a single experiment, generating huge amounts of data. Interpreting these data requires an understanding of the connections between these molecules. An effective way to do this is to integrate experimental information with well-annotated established pathway data (Figure 10). Reactome fulfills this need by providing free access to detailed pathways combined with analytical tools.
![](https://www.ebi.ac.uk/training/online/courses/reactome-exploring-biological-pathways/wp-content/uploads/sites/158/2020/10/2.10-1024x461.png)
For computational biologists
Reactome data is stored in a Neo4j graph database allowing cypher queries and a MySQL relational database with a fully-defined schema. The graph database, relational database and schema are freely available to download from the website. Documentation is available in the Developers Zone available via the Documentation menu on the Reactome homepage and on GitHub. Software for developing the Reactome web interface and tools used for curation of content are also free to download and reuse. Reactome data are highly structured, making them amenable to computational reuse. Data can be downloaded in several standard formats.